What is a Lightning Talk?

Lightning Talks describe works in progress, new and untested ideas, or opportunities for collaborative work. The purpose of a Lightning Talk can be to start a discussion, find collaborators, or receive input and critique about an idea. Proposals are limited to 500 words, including the abstract of 250 words, and will be blind reviewed for acceptance. Lightning Talk presentations will be a maximum of 5 minutes each, including time for questions. Presenters may use slides, but these must be submitted to the Lightning Talks chair a few days before the presentation.

Proposals will undergo blind review.

How Should The Proposal Be Formatted?

Lightning Talk proposals must be submitted in PDF format. The full proposal contains an abstract and a description of your Lightning Talk (as detailed below). The abstract needs to appear in two places: in the PDF proposal and in a text box on the submission page.

The full proposal is used for the review process only. If the proposal is accepted, the abstract is the description that appears on the Symposium website, and in the Symposium program and proceedings. The format for the proposal is described below.

Abstract: A summary of the Lightning Talk. The same abstract will also need to be submitted via a text box on the submission page. Please be sure that your summary is accurate and that both submitted copies (here in the Lightning Talk Proposal, and in the submission text box) are identical.

Description: Describe your talk in more detail. It will be helpful for reviewers to know why you are excited about the topic, and why you think others will be interested too. Lightning talks are expected to explore tentative or preliminary work, or even ideas for possible work. Presentations of mature work will not be considered.

Lightning Talk Abstract

The abstract is the summary of the Lightning talk that will appear on the conference web pages. The summary is limited to, and must match verbatim, the abstract section of the Lightning Talk proposal. The Lightning Talk abstract must be submitted in plain text. The abstract for an accepted proposal may contain a link to a website with more information. (Abstracts of accepted Lightning Talks can be edited in response to reviews.)

Submit the PDF version of your submission using the appropriate template. Please do not wait until the last minute to submit your documents because that is when everyone else will be connecting to our server!

Make note of the proposal ID number and password assigned to your submission. You will receive an e-mail message confirmation. Spam filters sometimes trap these automatically generated messages so you may need to check your spam trap for the confirmation and later, acceptance or rejection notification.

After receiving confirmation, go to the submission site to review your submission for accuracy. Send e-mail to the chair(s) (see below) if there are any problems.

Accommodations for Authors Affected by Hurricane Harvey

Please see this page for information regarding accommodations for members of the SIGCSE community who have been affected by Hurricane Harvey.

By SIGCSE policy, at least one contributor is required to register, attend and present a . See our full policy for more information.